Davey Tree Flipbooks

31 30 Growth Rings shoes of my predecessor, Mr. Alexander M. Smith, but with his guidance as chairman and the proven record of operation by our executive committee, I am confident that the services we perform for our clients will continue in strides of excellence." e "five great presidents" Myers referred to and their terms were: John Davey, 1880 to 1923; Martin L. Davey, Sr., 1923 to 1946; Martin L. "Brub" Davey, 1946 to 1962; Alexander Smith, 1962 to 1965 and 1968 to 1972; and Paul Hershey, 1965 to 1968. e new president had an array of Davey managers available with a vast amount of combined experience within the company. Aside from the board members who were longtime employees, such as Baer, Haupt, Jeffers, Joy, McCafferty, Pohl, Stamp and axton, Myers had a number of other managers to rely on for guidance, including: Roy Ferry, manager, northeastern division; Edward A. "Slim" Dahlgren, manager, upstate New York division; Merle Talbot, manager, southwest division; E. Kenneth Shuford, manager, southeastern division; A. E. Schneider, vice president, manager, Chicago division; John S. Miller, vice president and general manager, Davey Tree Expert Co. of Canada; Murray M. Linton, district manager, Toronto office and a director of the Canada subsidiary; William F. Heim, regional manager, Utility sales; and Howard L. Eckel, regional manager, Utility sales. Further afield were seasoned and steadfast Davey managers such as John Dingus, Sr., F. Lester Yost, and Delbert Tunks. In the early 1970s, Dingus was making a name for himself as a sales arborist selling Davey Tree services to prominent government agencies and clients in the Washington, D.C., area. Dingus would later accumulate numerous internal sales awards and external landscape professional awards during his Davey career. Yost was an old-school arborist who became a cavity repair specialist early in his career. He recalled climbing trees to make every cut by hand prior to the advent of power saws and bucket trucks. "When I first started, we had a car and a trailer and ladders stacked on a trailer, and we hauled the brush around," Yost recalled in a November 2000 interview. "We didn't even have a truck." Yost started in Pittsburgh in 1946 as a trainee on a line clearing crew, became a foreman two years later and then graduated from D.I.T.S. in 1955. He ultimately transitioned into residential services, becoming district manager of the Kent office shortly after moving there in 1961. Yost would accumulate 43 years of service to Davey, which included mentoring numerous younger Davey managers. By the early 1970s, Tunks, who started with Davey in 1947 and attended D.I.T.S. in 1949 with John "Jack" W. Joy, had made his way to supervisor of the utility oper- ation in Great Bend, Kansas, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1993. "When I started, everything was done by hand," Tunks recalled in a November 2000 interview. "You had an axe, you had a speed saw or hand saw, a cross-cut saw, and a pruner. ose were your tools. Of course, the theory was that when bucket trucks came out, they were the ruination of a good tree trimmer. Before that time, you had to be able to climb and use your rope and saddle. Now you get in the bucket and go up there and do the work. Any time you can make it more efficient, it is better." In its 1972 annual report, management pointed out that loyal people were the company's major asset. "Many important new assignments have been made by our supervisory and sales departments as we expand our services into new territories," the report states. "We continue to face a major program in personnel recruiting and selections for all areas of service within our company. Our existing programs of new employee recruiting are being refined and expanded, to cover the entire spectrum from high schools through colleges and graduate schools. A career in plant sciences and service to the ecological environment holds potentially great rewards for our young people." In 1973, Jeffers hired a fresh out-of-college graduate by the name of Roger C. Funk. One of his first duties was serving as an instructor at D.I.T.S., which started the first week of January and, at the time, was a five-week course. Funk garnered positive reviews as an instructor from members of the 1973 D.I.T.S. class, many of whom went on to become longtime leaders within Davey Tree, including Larry Abernathy, Howard Bowles, and Rick Ramsey. Funk would spend the next 40 years contributing to D.I.T.S. by teaching Davey's top employees. at same year an attorney working for the Cleveland-based law firm ompson, Hine & Flory named William Ginn was appointed to Davey's board of directors. Ginn's relationship with Davey started in 1950 when he helped Brub Davey develop large tracts of residential property north of Kent in the Twin Lakes area. Both Ginn and Funk would have lasting impacts on the company. Funk would eventually be responsible for advancements in research and development along with training field personnel. Ginn would serve on the board of directors for several years. At the time, Davey Tree was also looking for a corporate controller, and in 1974 Myers brought in a young corporate accountant named R. Douglas Cowan. is move was part of a significant change Myers had in mind for the company. Myers knew Cowan through Burt Morgan, the owner of nearby Stow, Ohio, adhesives manufacturer Morgan Adhesives Company, or MACtac. e company had been Chapter 2 Davey's equipment fleet grew exponentially in the 1970s. By 1972, the company was spending close to $2 million per year on equipment. In the 1980s, the company ramped up its equipment rebuild program and was able to obtain, on average, 14 years of service for each truck. M.D. Burt started at Davey in 1941 in utility services, attended D.I.T.S. in 1949 and became a foreman in 1950. He earned several promotions and ultimately became account manager for several large utility contracts in Ohio before retiring in 1988 with 47 years of service. Roger Funk joined the Davey Company in 1973. His scientific innovations, including the development of Arbor Green, helped Davey pioneer new, improved practices for the green industry. John Dingus, second from right, and Dave Williams, second from left, maintenance manager for the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System accept the Grand Award for the best maintained government building or complex from the Professional Grounds Management Society in 1982. Dingus was assistant district manager of the Chantilly, Virginia territory and was an early adopter of Davey's selling of federal government work.

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